Falling for Romeo (14 page)

She eased out from under John as smoothly as she could, gently rolling him to the side.

“O comfortable Friar! Where is my lord? I do
remember well where I should be, and there I am. Where
is my Romeo?”

Because John had changed the scene and Romeo was so obviously on top of her, Jennifer improvised, immediately discovering him. She looked at him, saw the tears staining his face and almost forgot her line.

“What’s here? A cup, closed in my true love’s
hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end. O churl,
drunk all and left no friendly drop to help me after? I will
kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
to make me die with a restorative.”
She was supposed to lean over and make it look like she was giving him one last kiss. But the way John had rolled Jennifer knew a faux kiss would never cut it.

She leaned over, turned his face up and lowered her lips to his. Maybe it was because he couldn’t respond, that his lips were utterly still beneath hers, but a buzz of lightening jagged from her mouth and settled low inside of her. The scent of his sweat and shampoo drifted in her head. His breath held a moment, then trickled, teasing every nerve on her face.

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Slowly, Jennifer sat up and took the dagger in her hand, looking at it.
“Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger,
this is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.”
She made herself fall over him and held her breath.

The remaining cast slowly took their places around them on stage. She tried to slow her breathing as Chip had instructed so she appeared dead, but with each breath, the pain in her lungs sharpened.

She barely thought of what the other characters were reciting, she could only concentrate on holding still—on not breathing. Her heart pounded. It seemed every ounce of blood rushed to her head and pooled there.

The final scene seemed to take forever, and as the last words were spoken, Jennifer saw sparkles behind her closed eyes, deeper black and then nothing.

“For never was a story of more woe that this of Juliet
and her Romeo.”

The lights blacked out and the room shook with applause. It was nearly pitch black back stage, but everyone knew where they were supposed to go for curtain call.

John reached out to Jennifer. “Jenn?” When she didn’t respond, he gently shook her.

“Jenn?” Panic filled him. “Jenn, it’s time. We have to move.” When she didn’t respond, he scooped her up and headed behind the black stage curtains and knelt down. Everyone quickly gathered around.

“What happened?”

“Is she okay?”

“Should we get Chip?”

John leaned close, wondering if she was just playing k

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a trick. “This is no time to be getting back at me, Vienvu,” he whispered. She didn’t move. Sweat drenched his face and he swiped his sleeve across his brow.

“Curtain call!” Ty whispered.

Jennifer stirred, a little moan squeaking from her throat. Then her eyes opened. She stared into hovering faces.

“Jenn?” A sigh escaped John’s chest. “You okay?”

“What happened?”

“You blacked out.”

“Curtain!” Ty called, this time louder.

The cast scattered to their positions. Jennifer tried to sit up but blinked hard and wobbled back.

John pulled her up and held her steady. “Maybe you’d better—”

“No.” She shook her head. “I can do it. I have to do it. Chip will kill me.”

“What if you faint again?” He had her arm and she glanced at where his fingers met her skin. “I’ll help you.”

“No, really, I can do it.” With a determined tug she was free, and started to her curtain call position on the opposite side of the stage. John barely heard the cheers and applause when the curtain slid open. His nerves still rattled from Jennifer’s brush with unconsciousness.

The cast took their bows in order of importance.

Applause intensified when she and John walked toward each other, joined hands, then continued to the front of the stage for their bow.

It was hot under the lights. Jennifer felt a slight buckling in her knees warning her that she might faint again. She bowed first with John, then as he stood back applauding her, she bowed alone. A strange excitement

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filled her. They took one last bow to the now-standing audience. It was the first time she’d suffered for her art.

The feeling was oddly electrifying.

There was so much energy on stage; she ignored the dizziness in her head. The curtain fell and the cast erupted into laughter and congratulatory hugs. The woozy feeling deepened with every squeeze and hug until finally, her heart started racing. Those familiar sparkles twirling in darkness danced behind her eyes again.

“Jenn, something’s wrong.” Why John was next to her suddenly, she didn’t know but she was glad all the same.

“It’s nothing.” There were so many people clamoring around them, talking all at once. She tried to steady her breath. “Maybe I should sit down.” She couldn’t help that she enjoyed the way John’s arm protectively cupped around her, or the way he took charge, pushing through everyone to find a place for her.

“Jenn needs to rest,” he boomed.

“Is she okay?”

“What happened?”

“I’ll bet she stabbed herself.”

“I think she fainted.”

“I’d faint too if John kissed me.”

“I’d full-on freak if John kissed me.”

“Guys, leave her alone.” John found an empty chair, set both of his hands on her shoulders and eased her carefully into it, staying close, as if ready to draw his rapier in case anybody hovered over her.

Chip finally made his way backstage. He grinned with pride from ear to ear. “Guys, gather round. That was k

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awesome, just awesome. John, you were insane. Insane!

I loved it!”

When he found his cast quiet and inquisitive, his grin dropped. “Something happen?”

“Dude, it’s Jenn.” Drake tilted his head Jennifer’s direction. Chip quickly broke through the cast to go to her. “What happened?”

“She fainted,” John said.

“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Jennifer wondered about her performance. Chip hadn’t said anything about it.

“Let’s get you somewhere you can lie down.” Chip looked around.

“My mom’s here,” Lacey announced. “She’s an RN.

Want me to find her?”

Chip nodded, but didn’t look relieved. With a jerk of his head, he gestured for John to follow him. “Let’s take her to the drama room.”

He faced the group. “I want everybody to go out front and greet the audience.”

Loyalty to Chip kept everyone from mumbling as they changed course toward the stage door.

“Jeez, Jenn,” Chip eyed her as he and John walked with her to the drama room. “Did you skip dinner?”

“No.” Her face heated.

“You should have skipped curtain call.”

“And ruin the perfect performance?” She tried to hide the sarcasm but a thread still remained. “The show must go on, right?”

She looked up at John. His brows were knit tight, his eyes somewhere between angry and worried. “You did great out there.”

His face softened. He pushed open the door of the

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drama room and held it for her.

“You feeling okay?” Chip asked her again.

“Yes. Yes.”

John’s voice was hard. “It was my fault.”

“Jenn, sit down.” Understandable concern laced Chip’s voice as he led her to an empty chair and made her sit.

“I threw her off.” John’s hands squeezed nervously.

“I fell across her the wrong way. I put too much pressure on her, lying across her like that. She couldn’t breathe—” Chip set a hand on John’s shoulder. “Stop. It’s not your fault. Great improvised kiss, by the way. It stays.” Jennifer’s eyes met John’s. Her insides fluttered.

The door flew open and Lacey hurried in with her mother behind. “Here she is.”

“Hey everybody.” Ann Naeverson wore tight jeans and an even tighter sweater over a cello shaped figure.

She looked like Lacey’s older sister rather than her mother, her dark hair stylishly flipped out, her wrists and fingers glittering with jewelry. She had Lacey’s flirty smile under brilliant green eyes.

“Thanks for coming.” Chip moved aside so she could get to Jennifer.

“I’m Ann. You faint honey?” Ann leaned toward Jennifer for a look. Then she dug into her bright flowered purse and pulled out what looked like a nail kit in brilliant pink. “Maybe you fellas better wait outside.” Chip nodded and he and John left the room.

The crowd was thick and still enthusiastic and when John and Chip emerged from the hall it erupted into another round of applause.

Chip was swallowed up by the cast while John k

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suddenly found himself surrounded by faces, some he knew, most he didn’t. He hated having to smile—to act.

His mind was on Jennifer and what happened. Voices rushed in and out of his head. He couldn’t look at any one person. Too many faces, too close. Everybody talked at once and people were touching him.

“You were so good.”

“Were those real swords?”

“Are you wearing tights?”

“He looks hot in them.”

“I know.”

“Is it fun? Being in the play?”

“So are you, like, going to be an actor or something?”

“I think he’d be good.”

“Better than Brad Pitt.”

“Hotter than Orlando Bloom.”

“Totally.”

John dragged his hands down his face, and looked over his shoulder, back toward the doors of the drama room.

Mr. Daniels approached with a grin. “John, you did a great job.” Extending his right hand, his left encircled his wife standing next to him with their children nestled close to her. She nodded in glowing agreement.

“Thank you.”

“I didn’t know you were an actor.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not sure one play qualifies me.”

“Pretty convincing. Shakespeare’s not easy.” His wife nodded with awe-struck enthusiasm.

“Brought tears to my eyes, that death scene.”

“Oh yeah?” John’s face warmed from the

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compliment.

“Yeah, you were totally awesome,” a girl standing to his left added. “I mean, the way you cried at the end was so hot.”

John rubbed the back of his neck and forced a smile. He couldn’t enjoy the compliments, not while Jennifer was back there. He wanted to find out what was wrong. A feathering of panic caused him to excuse himself and sneak to the drama room.

Three girls trailed behind him. “John, where are you going?” one asked, waving her program.

He barely slowed as he turned around. “Uh, to the drama room for a minute.”

“But you’re coming back out here, right?”

“Maybe.”

He knocked, but when he didn’t hear anything he opened the door, afraid something had gone wrong.

Jennifer had changed into a pink warm-up sweat suit.

Lacey and her mom sat perched on desks. They looked like a group of girls just hanging together, talking and laughing.

John stepped through the door. The heavy metal shut with a clank that had all of their heads turning his direction.

“Hey.” Lacey hopped off the desk, approaching him with her hips in a languid swing.

John’s eyes fixed on Jennifer. “You okay?” He was glad she smiled. Something deep inside of him sighed.

“Just like I thought,” she told him. “Lacey’s mom figures I was air deprived.”

He strode over. “So she’s going to be okay?”

“Probably a mix of nerves and your hotness.” Lacey k

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tapped his shoulder. “Any girl would faint after a kiss like that.”

John dipped his head. Then he looked at Jennifer.

“That’s a first for you, isn’t it?” he asked.

“I’ve never fainted before, if that’s what you mean.”

“You two must know each other pretty well if you know she’s never fainted before.” Ann Naeverson arched a brow.

“They’re like next door neighbors.” Lacey moved closer to John but he barely noticed, his eyes still fixed on Jennifer.

“I told her to take slow, shallow breaths during that last scene,” Ann said. “But there’s nothing I can do about the wow behind that kiss.”

John averted a face of embarrassment. “Yeah, well, she’s used to it.”

“Used to it?” Ann cackled. “A girl never gets used to it, honey. Trust me.” She patted his shoulder, picked up her purse and slung it over her arm. “Maybe you’d better move on, if she’s used to it. Spread some of that sizzle around, if you know what I mean. Lacey here wouldn’t mind, would you honey?”

Lacey gleamed. “John, you were so awesome tonight. I didn’t get a chance to tell you before, with, you know, what happened.”

“If you don’t need me anymore, I’ll wait outside.” Ann tapped over to the door in her red stilettos. “I’m going to talk to Mr. Chips about being on hand for medical emergencies.” She waved a hand, her bracelets jangled, her rings glittered, and she was out the door.

“She’s hot for Chip,” Lacey muttered. “It sucks

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having a single mom. Anyway.” She stood directly in John’s path, blocking him from any exit. “You were so great, John. Seriously.”

Jennifer rolled her eyes and stooped to pick up one of her costumes that had fallen to the floor when she’d changed. She’d never hear the end of John’s award-winning performance, she was sure of that. And she’d missed her opportunity to stand out front and hear her own accolades.

Feeling dizzy on the way up, Jennifer made a little sound, bringing John to her side. “You should take it slow,” he said.

“I’m taking it slow,” Jennifer snapped, holding the slip in front of his face.

“I could have gotten it.”

“Look.” Jennifer tilted her head. “I fainted. I’m not made of glass.”